A SPICY TALE
Spring 2016
This project began by choosing a specific food or ingredient with which I was unfamiliar. Always having a love for spicy, I thought it would be interesting to get into the culture of peppers and all the different kinds of spicy, little crunchy veggies that I could get my hands on. Not far into my research, I started to look at the intense rigor that people who took part in spicy food eating contests put their bodies through. From Pluckers’ contest that involves eating 15 “Fire in the Hole” wings and you get photo of yourself on the Wall of Flame, to even making a spicy dish at home, there’s the select few of us in this world that like to challenge our taste buds. Moving forward, I had to figure out how I could relay the feeling of eating something spicy so that others could share the same experience without actually taking part themselves.
Finding a way to challenge society through the visual language of design, I began the process with a poster. I wanted to show a gradient in color or spicy level somehow, but also display the use of peppers themselves. By complete chance, Thai Chili Peppers fell into my lap and I was able to portray both gradient and peppers in the poster. The purpose of the poster displayed on the next page, was to draw attention to the event that took place in the West Mall, where I challenged people to try different peppers at different heat levels without any notice. This allowed me to capture very fresh and natural reactions from students on campus.
A poster informs drew people to the event, but where do they get to see their reactions? Social Media, of course! Instagram was my choice to show the best snapshots of people trying the different heat ranges of peppers. I wanted to capture the progression of how one feels when they eat something spicy. I was able to catch all type of reactions: surprised, happy because they’re pepper ended up not being hot, too confident and then trying to hold in the reaction of all that hotness. It was a blast documenting everyone’s reactions when they tried their chosen pepper... and then got to scarf down some milk and a donut of course. After posting a photo of the pepper tested, and the best reaction photo of the tester, I realized that I thought the entire sequence of reactions from each person was hilarious and couldn’t be missed. This last thought is what brought me to create the accordian books that display each person’s sequence of reactions when they each tried a mystery pepper.
Spring 2016
This project began by choosing a specific food or ingredient with which I was unfamiliar. Always having a love for spicy, I thought it would be interesting to get into the culture of peppers and all the different kinds of spicy, little crunchy veggies that I could get my hands on. Not far into my research, I started to look at the intense rigor that people who took part in spicy food eating contests put their bodies through. From Pluckers’ contest that involves eating 15 “Fire in the Hole” wings and you get photo of yourself on the Wall of Flame, to even making a spicy dish at home, there’s the select few of us in this world that like to challenge our taste buds. Moving forward, I had to figure out how I could relay the feeling of eating something spicy so that others could share the same experience without actually taking part themselves.
Finding a way to challenge society through the visual language of design, I began the process with a poster. I wanted to show a gradient in color or spicy level somehow, but also display the use of peppers themselves. By complete chance, Thai Chili Peppers fell into my lap and I was able to portray both gradient and peppers in the poster. The purpose of the poster displayed on the next page, was to draw attention to the event that took place in the West Mall, where I challenged people to try different peppers at different heat levels without any notice. This allowed me to capture very fresh and natural reactions from students on campus.
A poster informs drew people to the event, but where do they get to see their reactions? Social Media, of course! Instagram was my choice to show the best snapshots of people trying the different heat ranges of peppers. I wanted to capture the progression of how one feels when they eat something spicy. I was able to catch all type of reactions: surprised, happy because they’re pepper ended up not being hot, too confident and then trying to hold in the reaction of all that hotness. It was a blast documenting everyone’s reactions when they tried their chosen pepper... and then got to scarf down some milk and a donut of course. After posting a photo of the pepper tested, and the best reaction photo of the tester, I realized that I thought the entire sequence of reactions from each person was hilarious and couldn’t be missed. This last thought is what brought me to create the accordian books that display each person’s sequence of reactions when they each tried a mystery pepper.
POSTER CAMPAIGN
REACTION FLIP BOOKS
SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
